NAHARIYA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved sending the director of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency to ceasefire negotiations in Qatar in a sign of progress in talks on the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu's office announced the decision Saturday evening. It was not immediately clear when David Barnea would travel to Qatar’s capital, Doha, for the latest round of indirect talks between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
His presence means high-level Israeli officials who would need to sign off on any agreement are now involved.
Just one brief ceasefire has been achieved in 15 months of war, and that was in the earliest weeks of fighting. The talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly stalled since then.
Netanyahu has insisted on destroying Hamas’ ability to fight in Gaza.Hamas has insisted on a full Israeli troop withdrawal from the largely devastated territory. On Thursday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war.
Also being sent to Qatar are the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency and military and political advisers. Netanyahu’s office said the decision followed a meeting with his defense minister, security chiefs and negotiators “on behalf of the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations.”
The office also released a photo showing Netanyahu with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who was in Qatar this week.
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least eight Palestinians including two children and two women in a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza, according to the Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government. It said the strike on the Halawa school that shelters thousands of displaced people in the Jabaliya area also wounded 30 others, including 19 children.
Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas command center at a former school in Jabaliya, without giving evidence.
Another strike killed four people on a street in Gaza City, said Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal. Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 32 bodies had arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours.
“I ask the world, do you hear us? Do we exist?” said Hamza Saleh, one of the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents who have been displaced. He spoke Friday in the southern city of Khan Younis as children and others jostled for food aid, while hunger grows.
